GSA
by darkwoodsdreamer
Summary: Sirius persuades Remus to take a Muggle Studies trip to America, all so they can investigate a revolutionary new idea - the Gay Straight Alliance! Rated T, but depending on where this goes that may change.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, the first chapter of my brand new fic! I know this chapter is a bit short - it was originally longer, I'm not sure exactly what happened LOL - but they're going to get a lot longer in the future. **

**I have no idea whether or not Gay Straight Alliances would have actually existed in the 70's, but pretend they did. :) **

**Thanks to my awesome beta sylvantbreath. :) You rock.**

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><p>Remus sat on his bed, Potions text book open in front of him and a roll of parchment so long it fell off the floor and rested on the carpet on his lap, gripped firmly in his small fingers. He only needed two more inches on the history, uses, and composition of the bezoar. Only two more inches and then he was free to spend the rest of the evening relaxing by the fire, talking and laughing with the other 3 Marauders...<br>"Rem!" Of course not. Remus sighed and laid down his quill, having long since learned that with Sirius, resistance was futile. This would all go down much smoother and quicker if he sat and listened to Sirius's newest idea or problem or whatever it was... Sirius bounded through the dormitory door and managed to stop himself just inches from Remus's bed so that Remus flinched and made to grab his ink bottle. Sirius's face was alight with happiness and excitement, even more so than usual. He bounced up and down, rocking back and forth in the heels of his feet. Remus couldn't help thinking how cute and how much like the dog he transformed into he was. He smiled indulgently, unable to keep the annoyed glare he had been previously shooting at him on his face for more than a few seconds. Sirius grinned back.  
>"Hey Moony, guess what?" he asked. He didn't give Remus time to respond before plowing on. "Muggle Studies is taking a field trip to a muggle school!" Remus was at an utter loss for a reason why this was so amazing and exciting to Sirius. It was a muggle studies class, after all. It made sense that they would take a trip to a muggle school and observe how they worked, watch muggles in their "natural habitat". Remus hated how Professor Ling referred to them as though they were some sort of fascinating exotic creature instead of human beings. He stated blankly at Sirius.<br>"Yes, I know, Professor Ling mentioned it in class at least a week ago." he looked at him curiously. "I expect you want to go then?" Sirius looked a bit deflated.  
>"You don't want to?" he asked. Remus hesitated, not wanting to make the boy upset.<br>"Well, I-I don't know honestly. I already know a lot about muggles." Sirius waved a hand impatiently.  
>"Yeah but you've never got the chance to actually go to one of their schools, have you?" Remus shook his head. His mother had been a muggle-born, true, but his father had been adamantly set against his going to a muggle school, especially after he was bitten. Of course, if John Lupin had gotten his way all the time, Remus would probably be locked in a cage in the basement 247. "Aren't you even the least bit curious?" he asked. Remus considered this for a moment and realized that yes, he was just a bit interested. He wasn't so sure about leaving the school for so long though... Hadn't Professor Ling said the trip would last a month? That meant he would have to transform there and besides coming up with a place where he would be enclosed and couldn't get out to bite anyone, the wolf would hate being enclosed in a new space...  
>"Sirius..." he started. "I would like to go but... Sirius, my transformation..." Sirius didn't seem put out by this in the slightest.<br>"I'm sure Dumbledore can work something out for you." Sirius said confidently, back to bouncing in place, barely containing his excitement. "He likes you." Remus sighed. He supposed he would indulge him, he would ask, but he hoped Sirius didn't get his hopes up too much because he answer was likely to be no...  
>"Oh yeah! Rem, check this out!" he reached into his school bag and did a bit of digging before coming back up with what looked like a slightly crumpled pamphlet. He presented it to Remus with a flourish. Remus took it and stared at the cover image curiously - a large brick building with the words Cantinbury Public High School in big white letters against a red sign in the ground in front of it.<br>"Is this a brochure for the school?" he asked. Sirius nodded enthusiastically.  
>"And Moony, look at this! Right here!" he said, opening the pamphlet and pointing to a small spot at the bottom of the right hand side page. A muggle picture depicted a small group of kids standing against a rainbow back drop and smiling. In the back, one of the girls rested her head on the shoulder of the girl next to her. The picture had the caption CPHS is the only school in the state known to feature a Gay Straight Alliance as of 1978. Remus re-read the caption a few times.<br>"A Gay Straight Alliance...?" he said quietly. Sirius nodded.  
>"Yeah! Isn't it great? I didn't think anyone would ever accept us besides James and Pete but... But that's what these guys are all about!" he was now brandishing the brochure wildly and Remus had to duck out of the way to avoid being smacked in the face several times.<br>Remus was skeptical. Lily had said that muggles were typically very unsupportive of homosexuality, but some of these people were flaunting it very openly. Did that mean that in this school, things were different? Or was it only this club, the small group of maybe 10 or 12 people out of what was most likely hundreds to a thousand students? Remus looked into Sirius's eyes, sparkling with hope and innocent childish enthusiasm and sighed. He hadn't wanted to do this, but looking at him now he knew it would be futile to try and resist those puppy dog eyes and even found that he wanted to go on this trip, if only because it would make Sirius happy.  
>"Alright." he said, pushing the forgotten Potions essay to the side and standing, straightening his robes out and reaching for the tie he had discarded upon entering the room. He really hated wearing the thing, but there was nothing he could do; it was part of the school uniform after all. He always stripped it off at the first available moment. He grudgingly started to tie it again. "I'll go talk to Professor Ling now. I won't get the chance after class tomorrow since I need my break to study." Sirius jumped and punched a fist in the air.<br>"Yes!" he shouted. "I could kiss you Remus!"  
>"Then why don't you?" he asked, smirking. Sirius grinned and took his chin gently in his hands, pulling Remus's lips up to his own and kissing him softly. Remus felt tingles run down his spine as he slid his hands up Sirius's well toned chest and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. Sirius's hands snaked around his waist and held him firmly. Remus, although he had no wish to, broke the kiss a few seconds later, earning a groan of disappointment from Sirius. He beamed up at Sirius and strode out of the dorm and jogged down the stairs, Sirius right behind him.<p>

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><p>"Mr. Lupin." said Professor Ling, a bit surprised, when Remus knocked on her door and strode in, Sirius right behind him. "And Mr. Black too. Can I help you boys?" Professor Ling had spent most of her life in China but now only had a slight touch of an accent when speaking English. As a first year, when she had first started taking lessons to get rid of her accent which was still very strong, Remus had hung on her every word simply because he loved the way her voice sounded.<br>"Professor, about the trip to the muggle school-" The Muggle Studies teacher cut him off.  
>"Ah, the trip to the American school." Remus blinked. American? Sirius hadn't mentioned that he would be going over-seas. He shot him a quick glare, and Sirius raise rugged in a sort of half apology. "You're wondering if you're condition will prevent you from going?" Remus nodded. Professor Ling smiled at him. "I see no reason why it should. As long as we take precautions during the full moon like you do here you should be fine." Sirius beamed up at her and Remus smiled half heartedly. He wasn't so sure about going to America. He had never been over-seas and Americans were supposed to be very loud, raucous, attention seekers. It was a country full of James's and Sirius's. Could he put up with that for a whole month? He had to try though. For Sirius's sake, he had to give it a go. Also, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little bit curious about the Gay Straight Alliance. A whole group of people who would accept them being gay and a couple... Was that really a possibility? He thought of the couple in the picture with the shorter girl resting her head on her girlfriends shoulder. Perhaps, just perhaps, it really was possible...<br>"Thank you, Professor. You don't know how much this means to us." said Sirius. The professor winked.  
>"Oh, I have an idea." Sirius and Remus only looked at her. Did she mean what they thought she meant...? Before either of them had a chance to ask, she spoke again. "It's getting late. You'll get in trouble with Filch if he catches you up at this hour. Go off to your dormitories now, and be quick about it." Remus looked up at the clock mounted on the wall and was shocked to see that it was 9:30 already, half an hour past the time when they should have been back to the dorms.<br>"Shit!" said Sirius next to him, standing to. He clapped a hand over his mouth as Professor Ling raised and eyebrow at him. "I mean, shoot." he said. Remus turned a laugh into a cough and Sirius shot him a glare.  
>"Go, before you say something else that'll land you detention." said Professor Ling, her face stern but eyes dancing and an amused note to her voice. Sirius blushed slightly and hurried out of the room. Remus grinned at the Professor before hurrying out after him.<br>"Can you believe her, threatening me with detention?" Sirius fumed as he walked quickly down the halls, Remus almost jogging to keep up. "I didn't even say anything that bad!" Remus chuckled but didn't bother to correct him. He leaned into Sirius who threw an arm around his waist and pulled him close as they walked down the hall, no longer caring if they were caught out at night in each others arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, so this chapter isn't much longer. In fact I think it's a bit shorter... Damn. Well there's always next chapter, right? To be honest, I didn't think that it was going to be much longer this chapter. But I hoped... Oh well. :)**

**Thanks to sylvantbreath, my amazing beta. You rock, dude.**

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><p>Remus and Sirius opened the dormitory door as silent as possible, knowing James and Pete were most likely asleep by now. They both jumped nearly a foot in the air when James's voice came from his bed, "Back so late?" Sirius instantly magicked the light on and they could now see Pete and James sitting on their respective beds, wide awake and grinning. "So where were you two?" James asked.<p>

"We were talking to Professor Ling." Sirius said evasively, moving to his bed and starting to clear off his bed. James raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, okay, sure." he said sarcastically. "You two felt the need to sneak out after hours to talk to a teacher. That makes sense. I mean, it's not like you could talk to them during the day. Now tell me," said James, leaning forward, "what you two were really up to." Remus rolled his eyes and hastily cut Sirius off, who had an evil glint in his eye as he opened his mouth and nothing good could happen when Sirius got that look in his eye.

"We were talking to Professor Ling, James. We were talking about the Muggle Studies trip." James's eyes swiveled over to meet Remus's. After a long moment, he nodded.

"Yeah, the one where they take everyone to a Muggle school in America, right? Why'd you have to talk about it with her?" Remus moved to his bed and started to clear it off to.

"Because of my furry little problem. I can't just start chattering on about it in broad daylight when anyone could walk into the room and overhear. Snape is bad enough; imagine if Malfoy knew. Or that Bellatrix." he said loudly over Sirius indignant shouts about how James wouldn't believe him but took Remus's word straight away. James and Pete ignored him away.

"So are you going to get to go?" asked Pete. Remus nodded.

"Yes, Professor Ling said she would work something out for me about my transformation there."

"Oh, right! When's the next full moon?" James said. "Are you going to have to transform there?" Remus bit his lip and nodded.

"Yes, the trip is in two weeks and the full moon is in third." he answered. James and Pete gave him long looks and exchanged worried glances with Sirius. Remus caught this and sighed. He sat down on his bed and crossed his arms.

"It'll be fine. Sirius'll be with me and Moony should be sufficiently distracted with him there. I hope." he added as an after thought. James hopped up and slung an arm around Remus.

"Don't worry, Moony. If Sirius doesn't distract him and keep you from getting hurt, I'll take care of him." James said this with a smile and Sirius paled, remembering how James had come after him after The Prank, a fight in which Sirius had definitely come out worse. Remus chuckled.

"If he doesn't sufficiently distract me, I expect he'll commit suicide before you get the chance." Sirius smirked and lay back on his bed.

"No doubt about it. I don't want to go through that hell again. Merlin, your strong when your mad, Prongs." Sirius said. He flicked his wand lazily and the lights went out. Although he couldn't see it, he could hear the smile in James's voice as he slid off Remus's bed and slipped into his own.

"That's right. So don't you dare cross me or you know what will happen." The sound of a fist slapping into a palm resounded across the room and everyone but Sirius laughed. None of them had any doubt that James would do it, too. That's just the kind of person he was: the kind that stuck up for his friends no matter what.

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><p>"Mr's. Black and Lupin, Professor Dumbledore would like to talk to you." Remus groaned and put his head in his hand. What had Sirius done this time. He glanced at Sirius out of the corner of his eye and he shrugged. Remus sighed and got up, walking out of Professor McGonagal's class and waiting for Sirius to leave just outside the door. When he appeared a few seconds later and closed the door behind him, Remus asked;<p>

"Sirius, what did you do?" Sirius looked affronted.

"What do you mean, what did I do? Why would we be called down and not James if I had done something?" Remus had to admit he had a point. James and Sirius didn't pull pranks alone; they always did them together and never didn't at least tell Remus what they were up to. He thought for another moment and then it dawned on him. He slapped a palm to his forehead, not able to believe he was so stupid. Sirius shot him a questioning look.

"The trip, he wants to talk about my transformation, Sirius!" he said in a whisper in case any one was trying to listen in. "This is it; it all comes down to whether or not Dumbledore can find some way to make this work." Sirius nodded, mingled hope and anxiety in his eyes, although Remus was sure his reflected the same. He intertwined his fingers with Sirius's as they set of to the Headmasters office.

"Come in." called the familiar voice of the middle aged professor. Remus and Sirius were down here so often that both of them knew the Headmasters office's password. In fact, last time he had changed it two weeks ago, he had come right up to the Marauders at breakfast and told them the password, saying,"No doubt you'll be needing it, so I might just save myself the trouble.", which earned a snort from Pete and a disdainful glance from Lily Evans. Remus opened the door, followed closely by the young Black. Dumbledore gestured to two chairs in front of his desk and they both sat.

"So, Remus, Professor Ling tells me you would like to go on the Muggle studies trip to America." Remus swallowed and nodded.

"Yes sir." he replied. Sirius said nothing, but continued to stare fixedly at the desk.

"Well, I do agree with Professor Ling in that as long as precautions are taken, there should be no problem. However, you have to realize that much more - em - forceful precautions will have to be taken in a Muggle society. If I had my way, I would have you transform in a wizarding village, but..." he trailed off. They nodded. Remus knew exactly what he meant; none of the villagers would allow it. They would see it as only endangering themselves no matter how careful they were, and they were right. They would be putting themselves in unnecessary danger had they agreed to this. Remus didn't blame them, but judging by how Sirius clenched his fists in the chair next to him, he did.

"I do not like the alternative at all, but you must realize its out of my hands." he cleared his throat, and Remus thought that this was probably the first time he had ever seen the Headmaster look at all uncomfortable, anything but completely sure of his words. Remus shot Sirius a quick questioning look out of the corner of his eyes, and Sirius gave him a small half shrug.

"Remus, it has been requested that you be kept chained during the full moon." Dumbledore said with only the tiniest hint of anger in his voice. "I personally think that this is not the best course of action, but some think otherwise." Remus wasn't very surprised, but he couldn't help but wonder who it was who had requested this. His first thought was Professor Ling, but she had never shown any signs of prejudice against him. Then again, prejudice and misunderstanding were two completely different things. Sirius shook with suppressed rage, but Remus calmly nodded.

"Yes, that makes sense sir." he said quietly. "In a Muggle area especially we can't risk Moo- me getting out." Dumbledore nodded.

"Sir, if this was it, why did you call me down as well?" asked Sirius, visibly upset but keeping his voice level. A small twinkle returned to Dumbledore's eyes.

"Ah yes. Sirius, I meant to ask why you decided to take Muggle Studies. You have never appeared to be interested in Muggles at all in the past; why the sudden change of heart?" Remus got the feeling that Dumbledore was getting at something else here, but he said nothing and simply looked at Sirius, waiting for him to answer.

Sirius blushed very slightly. "Oh. That. Well, I guess I joined because I... Well, Remus would be all alone, and he has us in all his regular classes and Pete and James took all the same things so they were together but Rem wasn't and-"

"You took the class to keep him company then?" he interrupted. Without giving Sirius time to respond, he turned to Remus and winked. Then to Sirius,"You are a good friend, Sirius. Now the two of you should hurry back to class. I expect it's almost over." Remus and Sirius jumped up and said goodbye before hurrying from the room and down the steps to the hall.

Remus couldn't help but think, exactly how many people know about us dating?


	3. Chapter 3

**I know it's been forever, but I got stuck for a while around 1000 words and put it aside for a few weeks in favor of challenges lol. **

**Much thanks to sylvantbreath, my awesome beta, for pushing me to get this done. **

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><p>Two Weeks Later:<p>

Remus hoisted his duffel bag onto his shoulder and turned to face Sirius, who was stuffing the last of his belongings into his bag. Remus let out an exasperated sigh.

"Padfoot you had two weeks to pack. Why didn't you do it earlier?" he asked. Sirius shrugged.

"Been busy." he said evasively. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Doing what?" he asked. Sirius looked up and grinned.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." he said mysteriously. Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius struggled with the zipper on his bag. When he finally got it closed, he picked it up and the two hurried down the stair to join the others who were going as well, which was only Lily Evans and a 7th year boy Remus didn't recognize. Lily smiled when he walked up.

"Morning." she said. "All ready then?" Remus nodded. It was then that James and Pete approached, Lily quickly moving away, a wary eye fixed on the pair.

"So, you two are off without us are you?" he asked, but he was smiling. "Where's your sense of loyalty?" Sirius waved a hand at him, also grinning.

"I've still got a sense of loyalty; just to Moony." he said. Remus blushed slightly and James chuckled, punching him lightly on the arm.

"When do you leave?" asked Pete.

"In a few minutes." Remus answered, cutting off the sarcastic comment he knew was about to come from Sirius. As if on cue, Professor Ling walked in to collect them.

"Quickly now!" she said, ushering them out. Remus and Sirius gave Pete and James a quick friendly hug each and hurried out the portrait hole.

They met up with the people going from Ravenclaw, six 7th years Remus recognized by face but not by name, and only one Hufflepuff, a 6th year called Jessica Ablins Remus knew because they both took Arithmancy last year. Remus flashed her a friendly smile which she returned briefly.

They stopped at the front doors of the castle and Professor Ling turned to face them, a look that clearly said she meant business. The small group went completely silent and gave the teacher their full attention. Even so, she still cleared her throat for attention.

"Now, I'd think that the rules I'm about to list off are obvious, but there are some among us," she said, throwing Sirius a withering look which he returned with a wink, "who could do with a reminder.

"Rule 1," she said, holding up a finger. "You are not to talk about the wizarding world or use the term Muggle. Rule 2; you are not to use any magic whatsoever, even if you're alone with no one else around. Rule 3; you are pretending to be ordinary foreign exchange students, so you will do nor say anything that will compromise that cover story." she paused. "I think that about covers it for the rules. Don't forget the address of the hotel. What is it?" A few hands went into the air, but she shook her head. "All together."

"328 Dole Street." the students chanted back dutifully. Professor Ling nodded.

"Exactly. Curfew is midnight and anyone who breaks curfew will not be allowed out after school for the rest of the trip." There was a collective groan and Sirius muttered something about unfair, which Remus rolled his eyes at. Professor Ling rolled her eyes as well. "It's my job to make sure you all don't get killed or something. Or break the Statue of Secrecy. Which reminds me - there is a drinking age in America which is 21. Meaning I don't want to see any of you stumbling in drunk. I wouldn't want to see it anyways, but even more so considering if you get caught you'd go to a Muggle prison and then it would just be a huge mess." Everyone grumbled a bit but there was no protesting, doubtless because of the threat of worse than just detention for breaking the rules. Professor Ling clapped her hands together.

"Alright, any questions?" No answers. "Let's get going then. We'll be transported by Portkey where an American wizard will meet us and show us to our hotel and also escort us to school the first day." And with that, she turned and swept out of the entrance hall, through the front doors and into the lawn. Waiting for them was Dumbledore, holding a what seemed to be a broken Sneakoscope. He smiled at them, and turned to Professor Ling.

"You briefed them already, I presume?" The professor nodded and Dumbledore turned back to the students.

"You all know how to travel by Portkey?" he asked them. They murmured an agreement and he nodded. "In that case, I wish you all a good trip, and I hope I don't see any of you back here until the end of the month." He sent a pointed look at Sirius who in return feigned an innocent angelic look, as though he had been wrongly accused. Dumbledore chuckled lightly and handed the Portkey to Professor Ling and headed back up to the castle.

"Alright, gather round, students! Everyone put a hand on the Portkey." They crowded around and Remus found himself squished between an older Ravenclaw and Sirius so tightly he could barely breathe. He heard gasp for breath as another student crammed in last minute and a sensation similar to that if someone pulled you forward by the back of your navel started as he was sucked through the Portkey. His head swam as he spun around and around. He closed his eyes against the wave of nausea that came up. Suddenly his feet were back on the ground and he breathed a sigh of relief as suddenly air rushed back into his lungs and he fell to the ground while the tight group disbanded similarly. He opened his eyes, chest still heaving slightly, and saw a smirking Sirius holding out a hand to him. He grinned and took his hand, letting Sirius pull him back to his feet.

"You're such a klutz." he snickered. Before Remus could utter a retort one of the 7th year Ravenclaws, a taller boy with dark hair, laughed and came up behind him.

"Please, Black. You fell just as bad - and you rolled a bit." he said. Sirius promptly responded with a detailed description of where he could go and what to when he got there. Remus chuckled.

"Language, Sirius." he chided. Sirius merely shook his head and placed a hand between his shoulder blades, giving him a firm push towards the group who had started down the hill, approaching a middle aged man with red hair and thin black framed glasses. He wore a green T-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees. He waved up at the group animatedly, a huge smile on his face.

"I knew it." Remus grumbled so that only Sirius could hear. "See that? He acts just like James from what I can see." Sirius laughed.

"Who knew you were a stereotyper, Remus?" he joked, clapping him on the back, earning an indulgent smile and eye roll.

When they reached the wizard, he immediately launched into an introduction. "Welcome, students of Hogwarts School, to America!" he said with his American accent that Remus frankly found ridiculous and found he was not alone in this belief when a few of the Ravenclaws stifled laughs along with Sirius. "My name is Richard Smith, and it's a pleasure to meet you. You will all be attending Lincoln Public High School and staying at the Wawona Hotel, a nice local place just down the street and around the corner. Let me show you the way." And with that, he turned an marched down the hill. The class hesitated and didn't move an inch until Professor Ling started after him. The walk was only about 10 minutes and the students whispered about what they expected and what other people thought about Muggle areas. Remus and Sirius, however, had a much different whispered conversation that caused them to walk a bit away from the others.

"I'm so horribly nervous and we haven't even seen the school yet." Remus said, his arms wrapped around himself. Sirius put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure it will be fine." he said. "The whole point is for them to accept us. They aren't going to reject us for being gay; remember how happy those girls looked in the picture?" Remus nodded, but it didn't do anything to help. The difference between them and those girls was just that - they were girls. Would they be less willing to accept them because they were male? Remus couldn't make sense of it logically, but you never knew.

Once they reached the hotel, a large rectangular building, many of the students seemed unable to contain their excitement and almost started running towards it. Professor Ling and Smith managed to hold them back.

"Now hold on, hold on, children!" he shouted with a laugh. Remus raised an eyebrow. Children? They were all at least 16. "I know you're eager, but running towards a hotel makes you seem suspicious. Remember, we're trying to blend in!" And with another huge smile, he turned and strutted towards the doors, earning himself several strange looks a crowd of running teenagers did not. Remus chuckled, along with several others, even the professor.

The inside of the hotel was modest looking and the color scheme green and beige. Remus privately thought that blue might have been a better choice; everyone knew that blue promoted calm and relaxed feelings. A pair or Ravenclaw students, surprisingly, wandered over to a nearby portrait and attempted to make it speak. Remus and several others rolled their eyes and Professor Ling hurried over to explain to them in whispered tones that Muggle pictures didn't move or talk. The Ravenclaws seemed confused, but followed Professor Ling back to the group.

"Welcome to Wawona Hotel! All of your rooms will be told to you upon check in."

"Please check in now." Professor Ling inserted. "Tell the lady at the desk that you are with Mei Ling. If you need assistance, either I or Mr. Smith here are available." Remus caught Sirius by the arm as he made to slip away and test the portrait for himself and dragged him toward the check in desk. The others followed reluctantly behind them. Remus wasn't sure what the big deal was, although all these students had been raised in the Wizarding world, and were probably just as terrified of the Muggles as Muggle-borns were of wizards.

"May I help you?" asked a bored looking but courteous middle aged woman at the desk, her dirty bling hair pulled up into a messy bun on the top of her head.

"Um, we wanted to check into our room." Remus was feeling much less confident now that he was standing here, actually trying to check in. Sirius stared with awe at the woman, who noticed and edged away slightly. Remus stifled a laugh.

"Alright. What name is your room under?"

"Mei Ling?" he said this more as a question than a statement, as he wasn't sure if this was when he was supposed to give her name or not. The woman nodded and rifled through a filing cabinet behind her, and pulled out a rather large file. She opened it and read what looked like a hand written note on the top of the stack of papers. She then looked up at them.

"I'm supposed to assign rooms in pairs. I assume you two will room together?" she asked, gesturing to Sirius, who had abandoned his staring at her and was now gazing at the lightbulb on the ceiling, equally fascinated. She raised an eyebrow and turned back to Remus, who only rolled his eyes and nodded in response to her question.

"You two will be room C4 then." she handed him a set of keys. "Second floor." Remus nodded and thanked her. He almost walked away before realizing Sirius was not following and had to bodily drag him across the lobby for a few steps before he came back to earth and walked himself, causing some of both the wizard and Muggle visitors to chuckle.

"What planet were you orbiting?" Remus asked as he made his way to an elevator. Sirius shrugged.

"Just sort of drifting there."

They stepped into the elevator and Remus examined the control panel. There was a button labeled G, above it 1, above that 2, and so on. Remus hesitantly pushed the number two and the doors closed. With a slight lurch that thoroughly alarmed Sirius, they moved upwards.

When the door opened again, there was a long line of doors, all with brass numbers on them. Remus looked a the one directly in front of them.

"This is C1." he said. Sirius wandered over to the door next to that.

"C2." he said, jabbing a finger at the door. Remus walked to the door next C2 and saw the brass letter C with a 4 next to it.

"This one is ours." he said. Sirius walked over as Remus put one of the keys inside the door and twisted. He opened the door and peered inside the room.

The room was painted with a blue color scheme. The main area had two twin beds in it, two closets, and a black box off to the side. The carpet was light brown and squishes under Remus's feet. Sirius placed his bag in the middle of the room and went to examine a door on the opposite side of the room.

Remus followed and peered into the door as well, which revealed a standard bathroom area, but also included a shower. Sirius shut the door and turned to Remus, grinning.

"You know, it's almost like we've graduated and are loving together." Remus blushed slightly but nodded. It did feel a bit like that. He planned to enjoy it. Sirius lifted Remus's chin and pressed his lips to his. Remus smiled into the kiss and lifted his arms up around Sirius's neck, pulling him closer.

This was how he wanted to live his life. Safe in Sirius's arms.


	4. Chapter 4

**I know this chapter is long overdue, but in my own defense it's really long and took me forever to write, which is a horrible excuse I know, but it's the only one I have. Except that I was busy for a few weeks with church stuff. **

**Anywho, I included an anime reference in here. I wonder how many people will get it? :)**

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><p>The next day:<p>

Remus woke up early, much earlier than he had set his alarm. Robert Smith had said that muggle schools started much earlier than wizard ones, so Remus had already set his alarm for 6:00. Unfortuately, a loud blaring noise outside jerked him out of his sleep. He bolted up out of bed and hurried over to the window, peeling back the curtains and scanning the dark city below. Sirius pushed himself up on his elbows and rubbed his eyes groggily. "Rem?" he said, his voice hoarse from sleep. "What are you doing up? It's still dark."

"Didn't you just hear that?" Remus asked, finding it hard to believe anyone could hear through that wailing sound, like a... A dying alien elephant or something of that nature. Then again, Sirius had once slept through James setting the dorm on fire.

"Hear what?" He asked, bewildered. Remus sighed and didn't respond right away, instead scanning the streets for signs of unrest. No one else seemed to be bothered by it; perhaps loud dying alien/animal sounds were normal in the muggle world? Remus shook his head and left the window, not wanting to think about it anymore.

"Never mind." he said. Sirius seemed to battle with himself on whether to ask more questions or go back to sleep. Remus smiled gently and leaned down to give him a quick kiss before glancing at the clock. "We'd have to get up in half an hour anyway." he told him, gesturing to the alarm clock which read 5:36.

"Half an hour I could have spent sleeping." Sirius grumbled. Remus laughed quietly and turned to rummage through his bag. "Aren't you going back to bed?" Remus shook his head.

"No, I'd never get to sleep anyway. I'm going to take a shower." he said, pulling a light green shirt and a pair of dark jeans out of his bag. He laid them on the bed and turned to go into the bathroom. Sirius looked like he was about to object, but he simply shrugged and rolled over.

The shower water was pleasantly hot and it helped Remus to relax, something he hadn't been able to do at all over the past two weeks. He was so worried about what would happen with this alleged Gay-Straight Alliance. Just because they were accepting didn't mean all the other students would be, and from the pamphlet in looked as though everyone knew exactly who was in it. Remus was no muggle expert, but he was pretty sure that even though it was obviously compromised of people who were both gay and straight, the whole student body would automatically assume anyone who signed up must be gay. It was unfair, yes, but teenagers were hardly ever fair.

Remus tried to redirect his thoughts, tried to let the hot water relax away all his stress, but it wasn't easy. His mind insisted on turning back to the upcoming day. Finally, Remus gave up and got out. He dried off and went back out into the room to grab his clothes just in time for the alarm to go off. Sirius payed no attention to it and continued to sleep, so after dressing himself and shutting off the annoying blaring thing, he was forced to shake Sirius awake and practically pull him up and push him in the direction of the shower, all the while listening to a steady barrage of insults being thrown at him by his half asleep boyfriend.

While Sirius showered, Remus grabbed the two backpacks that had been provided for him. He and Sirius would be juniors at the high school, which apparently was the muggle equivalent of a 6th year. Muggle education confused him. First little kids were sent to elementary school where they took kindergarten and then 1st grade (which was actually their second year) up to 6th grade. Then the 7th and 8th graders went to college- no that was wrong, they went to middle school. 9th - 12th grade was at a high school, but they called the grades freshman, sophomore, junior and senior instead. And then college, if you wanted to go. Remus shook his head. It was all so complicated.

He knew he had some time, so he decided to look and see what he would be studying in each class. His math book said trigonometry, whatever that was. He put both math books into their respective bags without a second glance. There was a book on chemistry. At first Remus was confused; they were taking a romance class? But it turned out to be the muggle version of Potions. He groaned; Potions was by far his worst subject. Apparently he was also going to be taking a photography class, by the looks of another book with his name on it. He shrugged and put it into his own bag.

Sirius emerged from the bathroom in a much better mood than he had gone in. He was already dressed in a black shirt that had a band name on it, Judas Priest, and a pair of light blue jeans. Remus gestured at the shirt and asked, "What is that?" Sirius looked down at his shirt and back at Remus with a grin.

"Oh, just a new band I discovered from the muggle world. They're good. I'll show you after school today." he said. Remus was skeptical at the least. The last time Sirius had shown him a "good" band his hearing had been muted for a week. Nevertheless, he nodded his consent and followed Sirius downstairs to breakfast.

They ate their meal of eggs and bacon with toast fairly quickly before lining up with Professor Ling and Smith outside the hotel. When neither made any move to address them, the students gradually spread out until there was no one left behind the two adults. When a large yellow vehicle stopped in front of them, Smith called them together and explained get quickly.

"This bus will take you to the school. At the end of the day, it you get back on this same bus, it will bring you back. All of you should have maps in your bags incase you decide not to come back on the bus and walk instead." he then ushered them on.

Remus was a bit frightened by this huge machine he was expected to climb inside of, but not one of the muggle teenagers looked very unnerved, so he tried to hide his discomfort and climbed up the bus stairs. One by one, the other students followed him and took seats closer up to the front. All the Muggles stared at them; obviously they weren't used to new comers in such large numbers, although there was only about 10 of them. Remus ducked down in his seat slightly, not keen to draw attention to himself, but Sirius had a different idea. Before the bus left, he grabbed Remus by the wrist and pulled him back further. They settled in a seat behind two boys with identical dark brown hair, bright green eyes and tanned skin.

"I'm Garrett and this is my brother Jake." said the one on the right in one of those strange American accents. Sirius grinned.

"I'm Sirius and this is Remus." he introduced them. Remus attempted to smile.

"You guys Brits?" asked Jake. Sirius nodded. "Everyone in England have weird names?" Garrett hit is brother upside the head. "Ow!" Jake said loudly. "What was that for?"

"For being rude." he said. Then, to Remus and Sirius, "Sorry. He doesn't think before he opens his mouth. Or at all really." Remus laughed. He decided that he liked Garrett more than Jake. Not that he could tell the two apart.

"So what grade are you?" Garrett asked.

"Juniors." Sirius said, a hint of pride in his voice Remus suspected came from having remembered the word.

"Same as us!" said Jake, grinning. "Do you know who you have yet?" Remus remembered a sheet of paper he had found in the book pile hesitantly pulled it out of his bag and handed it to the twins. Garrett took it and looked it over.

"Great, you're in Trig with me and Chem with Jake. And we both have English with you." he said, handing it back and turning to Sirius. "What about you?" Sirius looked to Remus for help, not having packed his own bag. He rolled his eyes and held out his hand for Sirius's bag, unzipping the first bag and producing a similar slip of paper.

"History with me." Garrett reported. "Trig too. And woodshop with Jake." he handed it back and Sirius looked over it, obviously as bewildered by the paper as Remus had been. He quickly handed it back to Remus, who stowed it away safely in his backpack.

A few minutes later a large building with a sign out front reading "Lincoln High School" out front. The bus slowly pulled around to the front and Sirius and Remus climbed off with the other students, making sure to stick close to Garrett and Jake.

"Which lockers are yours?" Jake asked. Sirius looked at Remus, who shrugged.

"No idea." Sirius said. Jake asked for his schedule and Sirius handed over the paper, having understood enough from what Garrett said to determine that's what I was. Jake pointed to the top left corner where the number 349 was written. Remus quickly retrieved his own and saw 350 written on his.

"There you go. You guys are on the third floor. Stairs are in the science hallway." he said, pointing off to his left, although Remus couldn't see where he was pointing through the crowd. "I have History first, so I'm on the second floor. Otherwise I would show you where your lockers are. But your first period is Trig, your both with Gar."

"Yeah I'll show you two around." Garrett piped up. They reached the science hallway and climbed the staircase to the second floor where Jake left them.

"So where in England are you from?" he asked conversationally.

"London." Sirius answered at the same time Remus said, "Manchester." Remus silently cursed himself as Garrett gave them an odd look.

"You don't live in the same town?" he asked, confused. Remus did some very quick thinking and spoke, cutting Sirius off before he said something stupid.

"We go to... A private school." he said. "People come from all over England to go."

"Wow. Are you guys rich or something?" Garrett asked, impressed.

"I am." Sirius said, although he said it with a bit of a scowl. It was a well known fact among Hogwarts students that Sirius Black hated his family. "But Remus isn't."

"I got in on a scholarship." Remus said quickly before Garrett could ask. Garrett nodded.

"Well, those are you lockers, but our classroom is right down there." he pointed to the end of the hall. Remus glanced to his left and saw the numbers 349 and 350 carved into silver metal plaques attacked to red metal doors. Remus noticed the locks - a bright silvery color. Remus doubted the metal was real silver, but it still worried him. He had no time to take a closer look now though; he followed Sirius and Garrett down the hallway to his first class.

When he walked in, a middle aged woman with a tight red bun glanced his way. She wore a simple white long sleeved shirt with beige pants. A matching jacket hung over her chair.

"Take you seat, Jacob." she addressed Garrett. "Your just on time." Remus stood in the doorway, unsure of whether to enter or not as Jake walked down the aisle to the third row and took a seat. The teacher turned to them.

"And you two are?" she asked.

"Sirius Black and Remus Lupin." Sirius said, pointing at each of them in turn. "We're foreign exchange students." he explained. She nodded.

"Yes, I remember getting that note." she said, gesturing at her desk. "I'm Mrs. Talcott; nice to meet you, boys. Let's see..." she looked around her classroom. "There are two seats in the back row, why not sit there?" Remus followed Sirius to the desks she had pointed to. Sirius sat behind Garrett, and Remus next to him. Garrett turned and grinned at them before facing front again.

"Who here can tell me how to find a tangent half-angle?"

* * *

><p>"So how'd you like your first American class?" Garrett asked them on the way back. Remus grinned brightly.<p>

"It was fantastic!" he exclaimed. Garrett laughed.

"You're the first to say so. No one likes Mrs. Talcott." he informed them. "She can be a real bitch." Remus hadn't the slightest idea what that meant, as last time he checked only dogs could be bitches, but he nodded anyway, accepting it was an insult.

"Well, at least someone enjoyed it." Sirius grumbled. "I didn't understand a word she said."

"That's because you didn't take Arithmancy." Remus informed him. "If you had-"

"I would have committed suicide long before now." Sirius finished for him. Garrett looked confused.

"Arithmancy?"

"Our math class." Remus said quickly. He mentally kicked himself; that was a stupid thing to say surrounded by Muggles. However, this didn't seem to clear things up.

"You have math as an elective?" Garrett said. This was the second time in the span of 5 minutes Remus hadn't known what he said. He felt a bit stupid, and stupid was one thing he wasn't used to feeling. He didn't quite like the sensation so far.

"Er... Yes?" he suggested. Garrett rolled his eyes.

"You didn't understand a word of that, did you?"

"Not really, no."

"Now you know how I feel," Sirius commented,"whenever you open your mouth." Remus punched him lightly while Garrett laughed.

"An elective is a class you can opt not to take." he explained to Remus.

"Oh. Well than yes, it's definitely an elective. But you can only take it after sec-" he stopped himself and did a mental calculation. "after seventh grade." he finished. Garrett scratched his head and chuckled.

"Wow, England is a lot different." he said. Sirius grinned.

"I've heard it's really just our school." Remus said, hoping to cover his tracks in case Garrett ever ended up in Britain and remembered this conversation.

Sirius and Remus stopped at their lockers before their next classes. Garrett showed them their combination numbers which we're also located on their schedules. Remus could tell just by the look on Sirius's face he was starting to think these Muggle schedules were the solution to everything, even though they were basically the same idea as the class lists they received at Hogwarts. Although he had to admit, he too was wondering if his schedule could tell him anything else.

Garrett held both slips of paper side by side. "Well," he said, "It looks like neither of you have anymore classes together, but you have lunch and free period at the same time." he told them. "But at least one of you is normally with Jake or I."

So both went their separate ways until lunch period, Remus with English, Chemistry and History and Sirius with Photography with History and English following. By lunch, Remus was exhausted, if only from running around the entire school to get to each class. Then there was the actual class itself. Remus only payed attention to the first 10 minutes of History; after that he simply couldn't concentrate. However, it didn't seem this teacher was used to being ignored. He was a great teacher, funny too, and obsessed with a Muggle movie called Star Wars to which he constantly referenced, but Remus simply didn't have the energy to deal with class.

"I'm sorry, sir." he said when the teacher had to call his name 3 times to get his attention, sending the class into a fit of laughter. "It's just that there are more classes a day here than at my old school and I'm having trouble finding my way around, so I'm very tired." The teacher - Mr. DiBattista - seemed to take pity on him and didn't mention it after that.

When Remus saw Sirius at lunch, he almost thought he had had it easy. At least he had understood most of what was talked about (except in Chemistry. He never was good with Potions, so this ought to be a nightmare.), but Sirius wasn't even a good student in the Wizarding world. This must be extremely hard on him. He had collapsed at the lunch table and was quietly dozing when Remus had gotten there. Jake and Garrett grinned up at him.

"I think he's had it for today." Garrett said. Remus grimaced.

"I have as well." he told them. "I almost fell asleep in my last class."

"What'd you have?" Jake asked.

"History." Jake flinched dramatically.

"Ooh, Mr. D must've loved that."

"Very much." he replied sarcastically. He patted his shoulder sympathetically.

"So you guys allowed to do the after school stuff?" Garrett changed the topic. Remus nodded. "Anything you guys wanted to look into?" Remus hesitated. He wasn't sure how much to give away; after all, he had no idea how they would react. Remus hadn't seen them in the photo for the GSA, and he wasn't foolish enough to think that one small group of open minded students equaled a large school of them just because the same students went to school here.

"Well..." he started. "There was one..."

"What one? Stop being so shy!" Jake prompted him, but this didn't give Remus much courage. He shifted in his chair.

"You see... Before we came here, we saw the brochure and there was club with a small paragraph that looked interesting - I mean, we'd never heard of anything like it so-" It was as though a lightbulb flicked on in both twins head at the same time. Their eyes lit up with understanding and they nodded, slight smirks on their faces. It was a bit scary.

"Oh, I know what you're talking about." Garrett started.

"Gay-Straight Alliance." Jake finished.

"Are we right?" they asked in unison. Remus hadn't seen them so in sync before. It was unnerving, but he tried to hide it.

"Er... Yeah. Yeah, that's the one." he said slowly. "Do you know anything about it?" he asked.

"Oh yeah." Jake said.

"It's a huge deal here." Garrett told them.

"You're definitely not the first visitors to ask about it." Jake put his head in his hand while Garrett leaned back in his seat.

"Not exactly a common thing, is it?" Garrett commented. "Be warned though, anyone who goes there has basically branded themselves queer until they explain they're a foreign exchange student."

"You don't want to be branded queer." Jake continued his brother's explanation. "You'll never get another moment of peace. The Jesus-freaks will be after you from that moment on."

"Jesus-freaks?" Remus asked before he had time to run the phrase through his head. "Oh!" he said as it dawned on him. "You mean Christians." Jake nodded.

"I thought England was predominantly Roman Catholic?" Garrett asked. Remus had no idea what Roman Catholic was, but he figured it must be Christianity. He nodded and did some quick thinking.

"Uh, yes, but... In my section of town... Most people aren't." he said, not knowing what else to say. "So I wasn't raised Christian." They nodded, although they seemed slightly confused. Remus knew his story had been shoddy at best, but there was no taking it back now. He simply waited to see what they would do.

"I see. Well, they can be vicious when they want to when it comes to these sorts of things."

"I remember having to start dating some underclassman I've never even been friendly towards to stop the rumors." Jake said, cringing at the memory. "Worse month of my life. Luckily, she cheated on me so I had an excuse to dump her." Remus was slightly confused by that statement, but he chose not to say anything about it. Garrett gestured to Sirius's sleeping form.

"Is he going too?" he asked. Remus nodded. "Think you'll go regularly?" In Remus's point of view, this was a trap. If he was honest and said yes, they would figure him out in a matter of seconds, and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. But if he said no, and then it turned out they did, he was hiding something, and they would figure him out just as quickly. He almost panicked, but quickly caught himself. He almost laughed at his own line of thought; he was too suspicious. Why couldn't he just trust someone for once?

"We might." he said, somewhat truthfully. "If it turns out to be any good, I mean. It is the Gay-Straight Alliance after all." he reasoned. He thought it was relatively clever. The way he said it, they would assume that he was straight when in fact he had never said anything of the sort. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't being truthful either. Garrett clapped him on the shoulder, chuckling.

"My friend, your the first person I've met who noticed the word 'straight', I congratulate you on being able to read." Remus laughed.

* * *

><p>"Well, this is it." Sirius said as the stood outside Music Room 3. They had gone to the Administration Office to find out where they could find the club meeting, and they hadn't known - of course, Remus cursed himself. Garrett had said they kept the meeting places were kept secret. No wonder they didn't know. They had found it by the sheer luck of running across a girl they recognized from the pamphlet picture, who had pointed them in the right direction before running off. "Are you ready?" he asked. Remus chewed on his bottom lip, nervous as always.<p>

"No." he admitted. "I'm nervous, really. I've never been... You know, out, to a bunch of strangers." Sirius put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer.

"I'm nervous too." he told him. "But it will all be fine." Remus chewed his lip for another moment before nodding.

"Let's go." he said, his attempt at sounding more confident than he actually was was shattered by the trembling of the last syllable. Sirius pressed a quick reassuring kiss to his temple.

"Together?" Remus nodded and they both put a hand on the doorknob.

"On one-"

"-two-"

"-three."

They swung open the door and were faced with a room packed full of musical instruments, including a piano and xylophone. A table of teenagers looked over at them, apprehension in their eyes at being discovered. Sirius, being the braver of the two, cleared his throat and asked, "Uh, is this the Gay-Straight Alliance?" he asked. The girl at the head of the table nodded slowly. Sirius's face was slowly turning red, as well as Remus's. "Ah - I'm Sirius Black, and this is Remus Lupin, my - my boyfriend." he said the last part quieter. Suddenly, everyone else seemed a lot more welcoming, presumably because they knew they weren't here to insult or assault them.

"Ooh, new members!" said a girl with long brown hair excitedly. "And their foreign! Where are you from?"

"England." Remus said quietly.

"I have family in England." said a blond boy, his eyes narrowed at them. "It's a rather large family in - ah - my community. I don't suppose you've heard of them? Malfoy?" Sirius and Remus's eyes flew open in surprise. Malfoy?

"Er, yes. My family is related to the Malfoy's." he said slowly. The boy smiled, but it was a strange smile. Remus wasn't sure whether to be glad about this or upset. The boy was most likely a wizard, but what was he doing in a Muggle school? Why wasn't he at Hogwarts or some American Wizarding school? Or maybe he was a Squib? Remus decided to put it out of his mind. The boy stood and came to shake their hands.

"Orion Malfoy." he introduced himself.

"That's my fathers name." Sirius observed. Orion nodded.

"For who I was named." he explained. "My mother was close to him when they were children." Sirius was looking at the boy with slight suspicion, but that was to be expected; the only pureblood he could stand the sight of was James, and this boy was from a pureblooded family. But still, Remus couldn't help but wonder whether or not he knew something about this boy that was making him give Orion this look.

"The others are Jennifer Downey, Angela Williams, Shariah Green, Daniel Gray, and Mary Hitchcock." Each nodded at them in turn and they gave an awkward wave in return.

Shariah grabbed two chairs from a rack against the wall and dragged them over, placing them side by side against the table. Sirius and Remus murmured a thank you and sat down. There was another moment of awkward silence.

"Well, what do you do in a GSA?" Remus inquired, finally finding his voice. "I mean, what do you talk about?"

"Anything we want." Jennifer said, smiling and shrugging. "We were just talking about whether or not we were out to anyone, besides the other members." she gestured at the table. Then, to the rest of the group, "Anyone care to fill the newcomers in?"

"I'm completely out." Daniel said, shrugging. "I don't care who knows. But I've been out ever since middle school, so people have pretty much forgotten by now. All the gossip has died down. Kinda odd for such a huge school, but there you go." His face broke out into a wry grin. "I'm one of the lucky ones I guess." Sirius looked impressed; Remus knew he certainly was. Tell everyone in Hogwarts that he was gay? He would sooner die.

"I'm not even out to my parents." Shariah admitted. "They're really... faithful, I guess you could say, to God. They would kick me out of the house if they knew I was... If they knew about me." Remus felt for Shariah; he wasn't out to his parents either, but she was nervous talking about it even with other gays.

Jennifer went next. "I'm out to my parents. And my girlfriend, but I think that goes without saying." she grinned at Mary, who smiled back.

"Same as Jen." said Mary.

"I'm out to my parents. I don't live with them anymore. I live in a group home." Orion said, but he didn't seem even upset or saddened by it. He simply stated the fact.

"I'm only out to you guys, same as Shariah." Angela said. She turned to Sirius and Remus and, with a slight blush, said, "I even have a boyfriend. Not because I'm ashamed or anything, I'm just scared what will happen if people find out."

The entirety of the GSA turned to face Sirius and Remus. Sirius cleared his throat.

"I'm out to my best friends James and Peter." he said.

"I as well." Remus continued.

Jennifer nodded. She seemed to be the leader of the little group. She sat at the head of the table and everything.

"Was it hard?" Shariah asked. "Telling your friends?"

They considered this. "Well..." Remus said thoughtfully. "Looking back on it now, I don't know how I could have possibly thought it so terrifying, but it really was. I didn't think they would accept us." Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, James comes from a pur- a really conservative family." he corrected himself quickly. "So it was possible he would reject us. But he didn't. If he never does a single blasted thing to help me again I couldn't care less. He helped us when we needed it most." he smiled brightly and rested a hand over Remus's under the table. "And Peter just does whatever James says, so that's double the thanks to him for making Petey alright with it." Remus couldn't help but laugh.

Mary looked at them as though they were angels from heaven. "Wow." she breathed. "You guys are so brave. I could never summon the courage to do that."

"Sure you could, Mary." Jennifer coaxed her. "You just need to believe in yourself." Mary smiled warmly at her.

"What about you, Jen?" Angela said. "You're out to your parents, right? Was that hard?" Jennifer considered the question.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought." she said. "The longer I kept talking the more confidence I gained. But it still took almost a half an hour to get it out." the club tittered appreciatively.

Angela leaned back in her chair and sighed. "I envy you guys." she said, looking around at them. "Even you, Orion. I hate living a lie. I hate that every day I wake up and I face my family and my friends and the whole world and I lie straight to their faces. I feel paranoid sometimes, like everyone is watching me, waiting for me to slip up."

"My life isn't as glamorous as you may think." Orion said, no malice in his voice but the words still sounding biting to Remus's ears.

"I know it's nowhere near perfect, but don't you feel... I don't know, like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders? Like your freer somehow?" Orion shrugged.

"Not really." he admitted. "I'd feel much freer if I could love who I wanted without feeling like I was some sort of burden on others." the group nodded.

"Coming out... Angela, I think your glamorizing it." Sirius said, leaning forward slightly. "Sure, if they accept you, that's great. But 'acceptance' and 'understanding' are two totally different things." he paused, trying to think of how to explain. Remus picked up, thinking he knew where he was headed.

"It's... I think what he meant is that even though your friends will accept the fact that you love other girls, you won't be able to talk to them about girls or about your latest crush like they can to each other. They might still feel awkward about it." he tried to say this as gently as possible. Angela sighed.

"In my head, I know you're right. But my heart still has hope that they'd see me as normal still."

"It's good to have hope. Don't let go of your hope." Jennifer urged. "I don't think that's what they're saying."

"I agree." said Daniel, piping up for the first time since talking about being out. "If you lose hope, you lose your purpose. And if you lose your purpose, what do you have left?" Daniel's words made Remus smile. They reminded him of something his mother had said when he was young, sitting in the hospital bed in St. Mungo's while he recovered from Greyback's attack.

'You can't lose hope for a cure.' she told him. 'Once your hope is gone, your purpose is gone too. And when you don't have a purpose, what is there left to live for?'

"My mother said something similar to me once." Remus said quietly, still smiling from the memory. "I was very sick as a child and had I be in the hospital for almost two months. My mother told me not to lose hope that I would get better. There isn't a cure, but I get on just fine. If I lose all hope, if I give up, what is life worth any more." he grinned at Daniel. "So don't give up your hope."

The whole group was silent for a moment. Then a yelp came from the head of the table.

"We're 15 minutes past the end of club activities!" Jennifer said, standing quick. The others followed suit. Jennifer grabbed her bag of the back of her chair and Mary did the same.

"Sorry, but I really have to go. See you guys later!" she called as they jogged out the door. Mary paused at the door and waved back before running off after Jennifer.

"I should get going too." Daniel said. "Great to meet you guys. Are you coming to the next meeting?" Sirius nodded. "I'll let you know where the next meeting is. What's your locked number?"

"349" Remus said. "His is 350." Daniel grinned.

"I'll drop a note in one of them. See ya." he made his way out the door, no sign of a back pack of any sort with him. The other two girls left with him, waving to them and Orion as they went.

"So, a Black." Orion said when they were alone. "I never thought I'd see the day when a Black set foot in a Muggle establishment."

"So you are a wizard." Remus said. Sirius smiled triumphantly.

"I knew it." he said.

"Of course I'm a wizard." he stated this as though it were obvious. "I was disowned by the junior branch of the Malfoy's a few years ago."

"The junior branch is in America?" Sirius inquired. "No wonder we never heard about them." Orion rolled his eyes.

"Well that, and we're all a bunch of filthy blood traitors." Sirius grinned.

"You know what, Malfoy? I think we're going to get along swimmingly."


	5. Chapter 5

**I know this chapter is long overdue, and it's actually been done for a few days. I'm not even going to pretend I've been too busy to upload it, since I've had some actual downtime (sort of) for once in my life, which was nice. Although, I still have a play to write and two years worth of work to finish and a woman to persuade to help me when she said she was going to and never did and wow I'm ranting about my life, sorry about that. Although you'll be pleased to know I actually went through and fixed the horrible auto corrects, even the ones my wonderful beta didn't pick up on. But it's me, there's bound to be more. Feel free to tell me - frankly I'm not going to give much of a shit since I have other things more important to do and it's already been posted anyway, but I still appreciate that people take the time to nitpick my work. **

**Alright, I'll shut up now. You can read. Thanks once again to my lovely beta, sylvantbreath. **

* * *

><p>Day 2: Tuesday.<p>

Remus and Sirius hadn't stayed out very late the last night, much to Remus's surprise. In all honesty, he had thought that Sirius would relish in his new found freedom and drag him all over the city until Remus finally convinced him that they were going to miss curfew on their first night if they didn't head back right then. But as they started on their way back to the hotel and Remus asked him, he winked and said, "I think it's better to be home early on the first day, make a good impression. If you're attentive the first day, teachers remember and are more lenient the rest of the year if you break the rules. Or in this case, the rest of the month. It's a reliable trick." Remus remembered the first day of classes that year; Sirius and James had been unusually well behaved.

Remus woke up the next day feeling tired even after having gone to bed early. The previous day had been exhausting. Although they had both perked up significantly when time to visit the GSA for the first time had come around, he was now feeling the affects and didn't like it very much. He rose groggily from the bed, very much wanting to throw the alarm clock against the wall; the stupid beeping noise was getting to him. He punched the off button with rather more force than necessary before grabbing his tooth brush and making his way to the bathroom.

As he let the hot shower water run over him, his mind started to clear, enabling him to think over the events of the previous day. Orion Malfoy was a curious character. Remus was predisposed to not like any Malfoy because of his name, and sure enough felt an instinctive feeling of dislike rise in his chest. However, logically, he knew this boy to be alright. He wasn't afraid of who he was, he had came out to his parents and suffered the consequences, all while staying strong. He hadn't yet given him a reason not to trust him, but he would keep a close eye on him albeit feeling a bit bad of being so cautious around him.

The rest of them though, Jennifer and Mary and Shariah and Daniel and all the rest, Remus found himself trusting. He wondered if this was because, like him, they were all gay. They all struggled with the same thing he did. So does Orion, a small part of his mind reminded him. Remus scowled at the thought. It wasn't like he was doing it on purpose. He wasn't trying not to trust him. He just didn't.

Now feeling more aggravated and annoyed than before he got in, he decided his shower wasn't helping nor would it and stepped out. He toweled off and left the bathroom to search his bag for clothing.

Predictably, Sirius was still asleep. His bed was a mess. He had tossed around so much in his sleep his blanket had almost completely fallen off, held on only because a corner lay underneath him, and the pillows were on the floor. Sirius squirmed again and lost his blanket entirely. Remus sniggered and re-covered him, only to have him kick it off. Rolling his eyes, he went to go get dressed.

Determined to wear something he found comfortable and not something Sirius wanted him to wear today, Remus pulled out from his bag a pair of black pants and a green collared shirt. He considered adding a tie, but the very thought revolted him; he wasn't at Hogwarts, he didn't have to wear those atrocities anymore. He left the top button undone but buttoned up the arm cuffs like he always had.

Remus moved back to the the bathroom to examine himself in the mirror. He noticed his hair had gotten long; long enough so he could again pull it up into a ponytail. It was annoying, how it kept swinging into his eyes. He stalked back to the main room and retrieved a hair band. After several minutes of struggling, he gave up and threw the hair band to the ground in disgust. Instead, he brushed his hair and kept it down.

When he came back out of the bathroom again, Sirius was awake. He was just sitting up, and froze at the sight of Remus.

"Remus, you know you look sexy as hell when you dress like that."

"Keep talking." Remus smiled.

"But-" he started. Remus sighed dramatically.

"There's always a but with you." he said. He started to rummage through his school bag, making sure he had everything he needed for the day.

"Oh, c'mon Rem." Sirius said, pushing back the covers and getting up. "We're in the muggle world. Most 16 year old muggle kids don't dress like 40 year old professors."

The criticism bounced right off of him. "I didn't know you had a 40 year old professor fetish." Remus said breezily. "Don't tell me you've been cheating on me with Slughorn." Sirius looked revolted.

"That," he said, "is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard in my life. I'm traumatized. I can never unhear those foul words-"

"Can we get back to where you were advising me not to look sexy?" Remus said, zipping his backpack up, satisfied it contained all he needed.

"I wasn't telling you not to look sexy, just-"

"Just not at school?"

"No, I was suggesting you at least try to fit in!" Sirius threw his hands up, exasperated. Remus knew he was being difficult but really, it was just so fun to push Sirius's buttons sometimes. Like when he was trying to argue about stupid things.

"Fitting in is over rated." Remus replied, standing to look him in the eye. Sirius could now see the amused expression on his face and rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm glad you think this is funny." he said, any edge gone from his voice. "But I can't have you beaten up on our second day." Now it was Remus's turn to roll his eyes.

"So what are you planning to tell people after I get back from the full?" he asked, changing the subject. Sirius hesitated.

"Oh yeah..." he frowned slightly. "I forgot about that."

"Why don't we just say I fell off a bridge?" Remus suggested.

"Wouldn't you be dead?" Sirius asked.

"A low bridge." Remus corrected himself. Sirius chuckled.

"Well, until we come up with something better, I suppose it will have to do."

"Or hit by a car, that might be better." Remus mused.

"Would you please stop envisioning situations where you're severely injured while looking completely calm? It's unnerving."

"I get severely injured once a month, its not exactly a big deal anymore, Pads." Sirius looked ready to argue, but Remus pushed on before he could. He didn't want to talk about it anymore. "Now get dressed. We should be down to breakfast by 7:30 and it's already 7:15." he gestured to the clock on the wall. Sirius looked at it in shock and immediately started digging through his suitcases, looking for clothes.

It was 7:38 by the time they finally made it down the stairs. The hotel cafeteria was full of chattering guests, with four or five tables left open and the others only half full. Professor Ling glanced up from her book as they made they're way through the door.

"You two are finally up, good. Eat quickly, the bus will be here it 10 minutes." she told them. Remus nodded and went to grab himself some food, followed closely by Sirius.

They sat down at an empty table in the corner, away from all the other students. They picked at their food silently for a little while.

"I hope today isn't like yesterday." Sirius muttered, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth. Remus looked up at him.

"Why, because you couldn't keep up with everything and fell asleep at the table?" he asked, smirking. Sirius scowled.

"You could have woken me up, you know." he said.

"I'm not stupid, Sirius. I wouldn't dare wake you from a nap." All the Marauders had learned early on that Sirius did not appreciate being woken. Sirius's scowl deepened slightly, but Remus could see him fighting back a grin.

"Im not that bad." he protested.

"You obviously don't remember the time you bodily through Wormtail across the dormitory." he raised his eyebrows at him. This time Sirius really did grin.

"Hey!" A voice came from the back of the bus as Remus and Sirius boarded. They looked back to see two identical familiar faces grinning at them. They started towards them and sat in the seat behind them like the last day. Both turned in their seats to face them.

"Psyched for your second day?" Jake asked. Sirius responded with a groan.

"I'm guessing that's a no." Garrett laughed.

"Hey, today shouldn't be so bad. You got through the first day, at least. I'm surprised you survived the night." Remus wasn't sure whether or not he was joking; his expression was solemn.

"At least there was no homework. What a miracle! They must've told all the teachers not to give out homework to give you time to adjust."

"I hope the adjustment period lasts more than a day." Jake commented. "It would suck if they gave us a break and then suddenly piled it all on again."

"Is the homework hard?" Remus asked. Jake snorted.

"That's putting it mildly. It's more like hell on earth." Sirius waved this off.

"That's alright, Rem here is a genius. He can do mine for me."

"I most certainly won't." Remus protested. "I do have my own work to do. If its really as hard as they say-"

"-Trust me, it is." Garrett put in.

"-then I expect I'll be too busy to do yours as well." Sirius pouted.

"You're really going to make me do my own work? That's just cruel." Jake raised an eyebrow.

"Do you really do his work for him back in England?" Remus blushed slightly.

"I suppose... Well, sometimes with subjects he doesn't get... I mean, when he doesn't have time from Quidd- er, football practice, I guess..."

"No fair! My own brother won't help me with my homework."

"You really want my help?" Garrett asked, chuckling. "Did you even see my last science quiz grade? How about my math midterm?"

"No, but now I'm starting to think maybe I should just do it myself." Jake laughed.

Remus got through his first few classes without any confrontation or real trouble. On his way to chemistry, however, he accidentally bumped into a blond sophomore girl in the hallway. The girl dropped her books rather dramatically and, Remus thought, unnecessarily all over the floor and let out a high pitched squeal. Many heads turned to witness the scene, and a few sniggered. Remus blushed and bent down to help her pick up her books, mumbling an apology. As he reached out to grab one, she put a hand on it and pulled it towards her.

"Don't touch my stuff." she sneered at him. Remus rather disliked this girl and had a faint urge to throw her out the nearest window, but tried to remain calm. He didn't want to start a fight on his second day.

"I'm sorry." he apologized. "I was only trying to help. It was my fault." That's not true, he thought to himself. I barely brushed her, she just decided to make a scene.

"Yeah, it is your fault." she said loudly. "What's wrong with you anyway? You talk weird, dress like my dad, and you knocked my things all over the place!" she flipped her hair over her thin shoulders. She sounded as though she thought she was intimidating even though Remus was almost an entire foot taller than her." An older boy emerged through the small crowd that had gathered and was quickly growing. He looked to be a senior, and even though he was a year older Remus was still a few inches taller than him as well. He came right up to him and attempted to get in his face, an angry scowl on his lips.

"What've you been doing to my girlfriend, huh?" he asked, giving him a light shove. When Remus wasn't affected at all, not even made to lean backward, he shoved harder. "Huh? You been harassing her?" The blond girl suddenly burst into fake sounding tears, covering her face with her hands and dropping her books back on the floor.

"He pushed me, Greg!" she cried. "He made me drop all of my books!" Greg turned back to Remus and tried to push him again, only succeeding and sliding himself backwards. He aimed a punch at his face but Remus caught his hand and easily twisted it behind his back. He pushed him away, and Greg stumbled across the floor, almost bouncing into his girlfriend. Remus turned to walk away, eager to leave this unpleasant situation before he got in trouble, but as he pushed through the crowd, he heard Greg call out to him, "Faggot!"

The crowd whispered quietly in anticipation of his next move. Remus couldn't explain why, but this made him stop. Anger, soft at first but growing quickly, rose up in him. He stood stock still, tense, trying to suppress it. "Yeah, that's right, isn't it? You're a big faggot! A pansy. I bet you and your man sluts have been using the closets in our school, haven't you? You're disgusting."

The wolf started to growl softly in his head, and Remus realized that, essentially, this Greg character had just called his Sirius a slut. Calm, Remus told himself. Stay calm. He's only doing it to push your buttons. You've done nothing to expose your sexuality. He doesn't know anything, and he isn't calling Sirius a slut. He's nothing.

Exactly, said a little voice in his head. He's nothing. No one would object, then, if you were to teach him a lesson here and now.

No, he told the voice firmly. No, I won't do it. I'm the bigger person here. I'm going to simply walk away. He turned and faced Greg once he knew he had his anger under control and could keep his face calm and passive.

"Your wrong." he said simply. He then turned to the girl pretending to cry. "And to answer your questions, I'm British, which is why I speak with an accent. I dress this way because it's comfortable, and I didn't knock your books. You dropped them of your own accord. I only brushed your arm." the girl was so surprised at this she immediately stopped 'crying', hands leaving her face to reveal dry eyes. He then turned and left, the crowd around him parting to let him through. He continued on his way to class, happy with the impression he had made and hoped it would be enough to keep them from bothering him in the future. Little did he know, standing up to them was probably the worse thing he could have done if he wanted to get through this month without confrontation.

A few hours later, Sirius bumped into Orion Malfoy on his way to his locker to get his lunch. "Oh, it's you Malfoy." he said. "Er... How's it going?" The words felt awkward and foreign in his mouth. Usually, instead of a polite greeting, he would have thrown a Dungbomb at a Malfoy, but he hoped he didn't sound as though he was thinking that as he rather liked this Malfoy.

"I've been better." Malfoy raised his eyebrows at the use of his last name and Sirius mentally kicked himself for not remembering Americans were immediately of a first name basis. Malfoy shrugged, hands in his jeans pockets. "You?"

"I'm alright." he said, retrieving a brown paper bag from his locker. He pulled a cup full of green jell out of the bag and sniffed it cautiously. "What is this?" he asked Malfoy.

"Jell-O." he said. "It's basically gelatin and food dye." Sirius looked at him blankly. "Animal bone and chemicals." Malfoy explained. Sirius pulled a face and pushed it back into the depths of the bag. "Good choice. Where's Remus?" he asked, looking around.

"Talking to DiBattista. Something about an upcoming test."

"Yes, I wouldn't expect him to want to take it having only had two days to learn two months worth of material." Malfoy reasoned. Sirius had a feeling Remus was thinking something something more along the lines of taking it and begging to be allowed, but said nothing. "Oh, and before I forget," he pulled an envelope from his back pocket. "Here. From Jennifer. Don't open it here." From this, Sirius had a good idea what it was about.

"Thanks." he said, stuffing into his own jeans. Malfoy nodded.

"I'll see you around." he said and started off.

"Right, see you around Mal- er, Orion."

"Sirius, what's that in your pocket?" Remus asked as they made their way down the street after school, only just noticing the oddly shaped lump.

Sirius reached back curiously and pulled out the envelope. "Oh yeah." he said. "I'd almost forgotten about this." he broke the seal and pulled out a hand written letter, the scrawl neat and slightly slanted.

Sirius and Remus,

Great to have you in the club, even if it's only for the month. Hope you like it. If your interested, please meet us again this Thursday in Music Room 3 right after school, where we were yesterday. If we aren't there, we will instead be in the library in the meeting room in the back. If you're no longer interested, please burn this letter so it isn't found. Well, burn it anyway just to be safe.

Thanks,

Jennifer

"Thursday..." repeated Remus after Sirius had handed it to him to read. He looked at him. "Well, are we going?" Sirius looked surprised.

"Do you not want to?" he asked.

"No, that's not it. I was wondering if you still did."

"Well, I do."

"That's settled then." Remus said, stuffing the letter into his backpack to dispose of somehow later. "We're going."

"Right." said Sirius. He looked around. "How about we go out? We could go find a bar somewhere."

"A, we're underage, meaning we can't drink. B, we have homework. And C, I have a test to study for." Sirius pouted.

"C'mon Rem. I have fake ID's from last summer when we went to that Muggle bar still. I only have Photography homework today and all I have to do is take a picture of a person and write about it, and where better to do that than out on the town? Plus, the history test isn't for a week. You have plenty of time."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "How did you know it was a history test?"

"You had to talk to DiBattista about it, you told me."

"Okay, well besides that, I'm not using a fake ID." he couldn't argue with Sirius's point on how being in public would be the best way for him to get pictures of people, so he made no comment.

"You did last summer, and it went fine." Sirius pointed out.

"That was in England. Our ID's will look different, there's no way they'll let us in here."

"But Rem, they say that we're British! If they try to stop us because of that we'll just point it out." Remus sighed. He really didn't want to argue this, but if they got arrested it would be on his head as the most responsible of the two. He didn't want to be in trouble with Proffesor Ling, and what happened if because of this they broke the Statue of Secrecy? He wouldn't put it past Sirius to start using magic without thinking after he had had a few drinks. It was ludicrous, insane, and there was no way they would pull it off.

"Alright." he finally agreed. Sirius cheered. "But," he said loudly to be heard over Sirius, "if they tell us to leave even once, we leave with no arguments. Understood?"

"Yeah yeah, Moony, whatever you say. Let's go!" he grabbed his hand and quickly pulled him to the other side of the street, darting between a gap in cars that had stopped at a stoplight.

It didn't take Sirius long to find a bar. The city square either had too many bars and clubs to ensure public safety or they had been wandering in circles for the past half hour. Sirius settled on one closest to the bus stop so it would be easier to get back to the hotel.

They walked up to the doors where a large, very muscular man stood. He eyed them both with eyebrows raised and demanded their ID cards. Sirius pulled his out of his pocket and Remus did the same. The man took one look at them and almost handed them back before doing a double take.

"What the hell is this, some government ID card? Cause I've never seen this design on any drivers license." Sirius looked curious, but before he could open his mouth and blow their cover as he was surely about to do, Remus spoke up.

"We're from England, sir. Those are British drivers licenses'." The guard checked them again and let out a bark of a laugh.

"So they are. Where in England?" he asked. Remus thought quickly, remembering what town Prongs had said had been printed on the fake ID's when he handed them to them the first time.

"Coventry, both of us." he said. The guard nodded and handed them back, apparently satisfied with his answer.

"Well men, enjoy our country. And our alcohol." he held open the door for them and they both stepped inside. Remus let out a breath of relief as the door swung shut behind them.

"I can't believe that actually worked." he muttered under his breath. "The man must be an idiot, he didn't even ask our ages to see if we'd slip up." Sirius wasn't listening.

"What's a drivers license?" he asked, forming the last two words slowly.

"A piece of plastic that lets you drive a car." Remus attempted to explain, although he had never actually seen one, so he wasn't quite sure. "It means that the government says its okay for you to drive." he tried again. Sirius thought about that and shrugged before heading over to the bar and sitting down. A barman came up to them, wiping a glass with a cloth before setting it down under the table.

"What can I get for you?" he asked. Sirius ordered them both a beer.

"Imported or domestic?" Sirius stared at him blankly, obviously having no idea what he just said. Remus rolled his eyes.

"We'll both take a domestic beer, please."

"What kind?"

"Er... Whatever you would reccomend." he said. He nodded and walked over to the otherside of the counter.

"What was he talking about?"

"Imported means it comes from a different country. Domestic means it was made here in America." he explained. Sirius nodded slowly.

"Oh... But if they already make beer, why would they get it from other countries?" he asked him. "Why waste all that money?" Remus shrugged.

"Who knows?" the barman returned then, a bottle in each hand.

"Here, two Budweiser's. Best we got, if you ask me." Remus thanked the barman and opened his as he walked away. He took a tentative sip. It was nothing like butterbeer, much more bitter, but not bad either. Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines judging by the large swigs he was taking.

Remus glanced around the smokey bar, keeping an eye out for anyone they knew just incase they had to leave before someone spotted them. In the dimly lit bar, he only could see groups of business men lounging at tables, ties undone and joking along with women in short dresses and too much make up trying to seduce them. A few teenagers sat at a table in the far corner, obviously minors like them. He looked back down at his drink and took another sip.

"Rem, this stuff is weak! I've had a whole bottle and I'm not even tipsy!" Sirius complained. Remus rolled his eyes.

"It has only half the potency of firewiskey, Padfoot. You're going to have to order another bottle if you want to get tipsy. No more than that though, or you'll get us in trouble." Remus warned. Sirius nodded enthusiastically at the permission to get a second beer, most likely not hearing the rest of the sentence. Remus sighed and took a few swigs of his own beer.

He wondered why he was so mentally exhausted today. Today wasn't nearly as tiring as yesterday, and physically he felt fine, but his mind was dull and slow. He wondered if he had been wrong about how strong the beer was for a moment, but dismissed the thought. He didn't feel drunk, just tired. Maybe it was that Greg person from earlier who had called him a faggot. Why had he said that? Had he really known that Remus was gay? How? But no, that was impossible. Remus was a good actor and always careful, and not even his best friends could get him to admit to one of his secrets if he was determined to keep it. He couldn't know. But it still bothered him. Maybe it was just the word choice, then? He really did hate that word. Well, Remus hated profanity in general for the most part. People called him so many names because of what he was over the years he came to have a general hatred for all of it, but that word was the worst. Ever since he was 5 years old and he had kissed another boy on the playground on the cheek, he had almost feared the word. It brought back memories of being beaten by the child's friends, shouted at by the child's mother, scolded by his own father, all calling him that name over and over.

"Moony? Earth to Moony!" Sirius waved his hand in front of his face and Remus snapped out of his thoughts, blushing slightly. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. What we're you saying?" he asked quickly before Sirius could ask what he was thinking about.

"I asked if you really we're going to take that history test next week?"

"Oh. Well, yes, I'm going to take it." Remus answered. "Why?"

"Well, don't you think you should wait to take tests? I mean, we've only been here two days." Remus rolled his eyes.

"By then, we'll have been here over a week. It'll be just fine to take a test."

"Yeah, but you can get out of them!" Sirius urged. "Think about it, you won't have to study so hard, you'll be able to relax!"

"This isn't a vacation, Sirius. It's a school trip. Relaxing shouldn't be a priority." Remus took another sip from his bottle. "Besides, I've already said I would."

Sirius sighed. "Suit yourself, but I won't let you spend all your time stuck in our room. You're coming out with me at least sometimes."

"As long as you don't try to get my drunk every time, I can live with that." Remus shot back. Sirius grinned.

"I swear on my honor." he said dramatically, placing a hand over his heart.

"Sirius, you're sitting in a bar in another country underage when you've been expressly forbidden to drink." Remus reminded him. "What honor are you swearing on?"

"So are you, though." Sirius pointed out, ignoring the part about his honor.

Remus didn't respond, but took another sip of his beer.


	6. Chapter 6

**I know it's been a loooong time, please don't kill me. XO I've been very busy and although this has been finished for a while I never got the chance to upload it. Chapter 7 is already in the works, however, and therefore shouldn't be as long. For those of you reading Hidden, the next chapter of that is finished as well but has to be typed and uploaded. **

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><p>GSA chapter 6<p>

Day 3, Wednesday

Sirius woke up before Remus that morning, which was odd. Even back at Hogwarts Remus was always the first up and had to wake up the others so they weren't late. He crept quietly past Remus's sleeping form and into the bathroom for his shower.

The sound of the shower starting up woke Remus, despite it being a soft, pleasant sound and the alarm that was supposed to wake him was loud and obnoxious. He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock. 6:42. He still had enough time.

While Sirius showered, he busied himself with replacing books in school bags, organizing both desks and choosing clothing that wasn't too offensive to his sight from Sirius's bag. For himself, he chose a pair of regular straight legged blue jeans and a plain white collared shirt, hoping it would be muggle enough to satisfy Sirius without a fight.

Sirius emerged from the shower only a few minutes later and quickly made it obvious he wasn't quite awake by walking into the doorframe while attempting to exit the bathroom. Remus stifled laughter while he guided Sirius over to his bed where his clothes awaited him.

"Don't laugh at me." Sirius murmured as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"I'm not laughing, dear." Remus replied, still giggling.

"I don't know how you do it." Sirius complained. "Waking up so early every morning and getting us all up. It's hard just waking up."

"Pads, I don't stay up until all hours drinking and helping James with his half brained schemes." Sirius pouted.

"You say that like you never do anything wrong."

"I never said that. I just don't do things wrong with alcohol in my system."

"You rarely drink in the first place." Sirius pointed out.

"Exactly." Sirius pouted again.

"I don't want to have to stop drinking though." he said. Remus shrugged.

"If you actually want to wake up early you're going to have to. That and go to bed at a sensible time." Sirius considered it for a moment.

"Nah, I think our current arrangement is fine." Sirius decided. Remus rolled his eyes and kissed him.

"That's alright, I'll love you even if you do sleep late." Sirius grinned and pulled him down for another kiss. Remus allowed this to go on for a minute or so before pulling away.

"C'mon, we need to get downstairs." he said. Sirius pouted but shouldered his backpack and followed him down to the cafeteria area.

Remus and Sirius boarded the bus and made there way to the back where they had sat the previous few days, and saw only Garrett was there.

"Where's Jake?" Sirius asked as they sat down.

"At home, he was too sick to come to school." Garrett said, the tone of his voice nonchalant but he seemed worried.

"What's he got?" Remus asked. Garrett hesitated.

"Well, we're not really sure. He's been complaining of headaches lately, though."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Remus reassured him, and Garrett managed a smile.

"Much homework yesterday?" he changed the subject.

"Nah, just Photography for me." Sirius said while Remus shook his head.

"Lucky. Photography has the easiest homework, if you ask me. I had Chemistry homework. I have to do a research project as our final project."

"Really? We weren't given anything like that."

"I have a different teacher, that could be why. You'll probably start in a few days. Either that or Mr. Chernosky just doesn't do final projects."

"I hope not." Sirius said. "I don't want to have such a huge project taking up all my time while we're here."

"I bet you guys could get exempt anyway, come to think of it." Garrett said thoughtfully. "Only being here for a month and all." Sirius grinned.

"Awesome. McGonagal gave us enough back home."

"McGonagal?" Garrett asked, confused. Sirius nodded.

"Our Trans-"

"Our teacher." Remus cut Sirius across, elbowing him in the stomach.

"Ow!" Sirius complained loudly, but he was ignored.

"What subject?"

"... Biology." Remus made up.

"You take biology junior year at your old school? I took that last year."

"So did we." Remus felt like he was digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Luckily for him, Garrett didn't press for more details on Professor McGonagal.

"Gave out a lot of homework, I'm guessing?" Sirius nodded at the same time Remus shook his head.

"It wasn't that bad, really, it was fairly easy."

"Maybe for you, Mr. Top-of-Every-Class, but the rest of us don't actually enjoy mountains of work." Garrett laughed.

"Bookworm, huh? Don't sweat it, half of America doesn't give a crap about education, it's good someone out there does."

"I don't study as often as I could." Remus jabbed a thumb in Sirius's direction. "He and James see to that."

"James?"

"Other friend. He doesn't take, erm, Foreign Studies, so he isn't here."

"C'mon Rem, there's no way you seriously would rather study then hang out with us!" Sirius pouted.

"I like hanging out with you just fine." Remus rolled his eyes. "I only meant you keep me from studying when I really should be."

The bus pulled up in front of the school and students began to file off. "See ya around." Garrett said, slipping into the throng.

Sirius slammed his locker door, mildly annoyed that he was fairly sure he had failed the trigonometry pop quiz. He had never really been a good test taker, but whenever he got a bad grade it bothered him and put him in a bad mood.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." came a voice from behind him. He jumped and whirled around to find Orion Malfoy standing behind, eyebrows raised.

"You scared the crap out of me!" He said accusingly. Orion chuckled.

"It's not my fault you're so damn jumpy. So what's up?"

"I bombed my trig quiz." He said sullenly.

"The one Talcott gives to see if your ready for the test?" Sirius shrugged.

"I guess."

"Bad luck. What'd you get?"

"0 out of 20 questions." Orion only stared for a moment.

"What, seriously?"

"Yep."

Orion burst out laughing. Sirius pouted. "Hey, I tried!" he said defensively, but this only made him laugh harder. After about half a minute he was able to get himself back under control.

"Like you haven't ever gotten a zero before." Sirius muttered.

"I've never gotten anything under an 80, actually." Sirius snorted.

"C'mon, even Remus has failed tests before." He said.

"I've just always gotten good grades. Especially once I decided to come out. I figured the better I made myself out to be, the more likely it was they'd accept me. It didn't work, obviously." He shrugged as though it was no big deal, but Sirius was sure it really was.

"I get pretty good grades back home, but... I don't know, I thought this stuff would be easy but it's not."

"Muggle stuff doesn't come easy to most." Sirius's eyes flew open in shock before he remembered and laughed.

"I keep forgetting you're a wizard."

"Technically a wizard. I try not to use magic though, it just makes it all that harder to do things the muggle way when you see how much faster it can be done with magic." Sirius nodded. He didn't quite understand why anyone would not want to do magic, even if their wizard parents did throw them out of the house and cut off all communication with them at a young age. But he supposed that was from growing up taught that anything muggle was bad and to be avoided at all costs. As much as he wished he could completely separate from the things his parents taught him, he knew it was virtually impossible to completely rid himself of his prejudice. It would always be his first reaction.

"So do you still talk to other wizards?" Orion shrugged.

"Sometimes. Most of their parents told them about my being kicked out, but most of them don't know why because my parents considered my... Well, you know. So they didn't tell very many people why, they were too embarrassed."

"Pretty sure I'd get the same reaction if I told my parents. Not that I'd care, I'd be glad to get out of there." He said, wrinkling his nose at the mere thought of his family.

"Be glad you at least have parents." came the slightly cool response. "I'm sure they like you a lot more than they seem to." Sirius had momentarily forgotten Orion's situation; he mentally kicked himself over his slip.

"Sorry." He mumbled, slightly embarrassed. He didn't really believe that his parents liked him at all and they would probably even be glad of the excuse to get rid of him once the got over the anger of having a queer son, but he could tell this wasn't exactly the time to bring it up. And Orion was right, in a way; even though they didn't care for him, they kept him, unlike his parents.

"It's fine. People never realize how good they have it until its gone, and then they miss it like hell. I'm no different." He shrugged. There was a moment of silence and Orion backed away into the throng of oncoming students, raising a hand in farewell.

"I'll catch you later." He called out before disappearing in the crowd. Sirius stood there and stared after him for a moment until the warning bell rang, making him jump. He quickly grabbed his texts for his next class and ran off.

Remus walked into the cafeteria dragging his feet slightly. He was exhausted from the quiz first thing in the morning he had nearly failed and a history lecture last period. DiBattista was a great and very entertaining lecturer, unlike Professor Binns, but Remus always had a hard time keeping up with what he was saying. He kept throwing out names and not explaining who they were, most likely because it was common knowledge to everyone else and he forgot he had to explain for the benefit of the foreigners and it made for long nights of trying to find information on all of these people so he could even begin to understand this class. He had a feeling he was not going to get the best of grades.

"Oh!... Regis, isn't it?" came a voice. He looked up and was the figure of Angela Williams not too far away. He smiled at her.

"Remus." He corrected. She blushed.

"Sorry, I'm not good with names." She apologized.

"It's fine, Angela." Her face only went redder at the realization he had remembered her name. "How've you been?"

"I'm alright. That trig quiz was awful."

"Oh, you've taken it too? I'm glad it wasn't just me who nearly failed it." Angela laughed and waved a hand.

"Everyone fails it, even the people who have been taking trig. It's at least 3 times harder than the actual test every time." Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good. If it was any harder I wouldn't survive." Remus went over this in his mind. "Wait... test?!" Angela looked a him curiously.

"You didn't know?"

"No! That makes two tests to prepare for... Merlin, and I thought I was working hard now." Angela giggled.

"You get used to it. Or... You're only here for a month, right?" Remus nodded. "Then maybe you won't have to get used to it. Don't you get tests back in England?"

"Well, yes, but the teachers seemed a bit better at... coordinating them."

"We must be really bad, then, cause this is a good week." Remus groaned. Angela patted his arm in amused sympathy. "Your friend made it seem like you'd like having all this work."

"I like learning, not drowning in homework." He corrected. "He doesn't like learning anything that isn't about a sports player or that doesn't involve a jump he can do with a motorcycle or something like that." Angela seemed alarmed.

"A jump on a motorcycle?" She asked. Remus nodded, rolling his eyes at the memory.

"He's got this idea that he's going to own a motorcycle and do all these things to it." He said, intentionally being vague. He couldn't help a cringe at remembering the plans he excitedly listed off for it, including flying, the project die to start as soon as possible. "He's crazy if he thinks I'm going to let him kill himself on one of those things though."

"That bad, huh?"

"You've no idea." He grimaced. Angela giggled and Remus couldn't help but crack a smile as well. It all was rather funny, Sirius and James antics. If only she knew half the things they had done over the years, even as first years. They were just born terrors, apparently.

"What's so funny?" came a voice. A boy Remus vaguely remembered seeing around came into view. His blond hair was getting long he kept shaking his head to keep it out of his face. Remus found this habit rather annoying. "Hey, babe." he put an arm around Angela and stared at Remus expectantly.

"Oh... Hello, my name is Remus Lupin." He extended a hand.

"You're British. You one of those transfer students?" he ignored his hand, so Remus dropped it.

"Yes." he said. "What's your name?" He was trying to be friendly, but this guy, who he assumed must be Angela's boyfriend, didn't seem to be interested in friendly. By the way he was looking at him, he seemed to think Remus a threat. He almost laughed at this, but sensed this wouldn't go over well and restrained himself.

"Jim. How do you know my girlfriend?" He stressed the word my.

"Oh... We met briefly... On my first day here, you know. I keep getting lost." He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Jim still eyed him suspiciously for a moment.

"Right. C'mon Angie." He tugged on Angela's shoulders and started to lead her away. Angela sent Remus an apologetic glance over her shoulder. He smiled back, but it was a bit forced. Her boyfriend, Jim, was quite rude and overprotective and he didn't quite understand why she would stay with him. Then again, it wasn't as though she actually liked him, at least he didn't think she did. And he apparently viewed Remus as some sort of competition, which he found flattering and laughable at the same time. Trying to push that strange conversation from his mind and concentrate on eating and trying to remember where in the world he was supposed to be next period.

Sirius joined him a few minutes later. "Hey, Rem." Remus started, not having noticed him sit down. Sirius laughed. "What was that?"

"You surprised me is all." He said. "Where have you been?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your late. What happened." Sirius snorted.

"I'm late for lunch? Merlin, I should get detention for that." Remus rolled his eyes. "Richards let us out late." They ate in silence for a while.

"Have you talked to Angela since Monday?" Remus asked offhandedly. Sirius thought for a moment.

"No, don't think so. Why?" he looked at him curiously. Remus only shrugged.

"No reason." He didn't look up from his lunch, but he could feel Sirius's eyes boring through him. He sighed. "It's nothing, really. I talked to her a bit before you showed up and her boyfriend, the one she mentioned, seemed very overprotective." Sirius only looked at him.

"Okay. So?"

"So what happens if she tells him?" Remus asked.

"She doesn't have to tell him." Sirius pointed out, understanding what Remus was alluding to. "All she has to do is tell him she doesn't want to see him anymore if she decides she wants to go after some chick." Remus moved a piece of pasta around on his plate.

"I suppose. But even then he'll be angry."

"Well, yeah. Who wouldn't be angry or at least upset over a breakup?" Sirius asked. "What's up, Moony? Why's this bothering you so much?"

"I'm just a bit concerned for her safety is all. He thought Angela was cheating on him with me just because she was talking to me." Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You don't think he'd… I dunno, hit her or anything?"

"Just because he's overprotective doesn't mean he's abusive." Sirius pointed out. Remus nodded, but wasn't entirely convinced. His father had been overprotective of his mother, and abusive of him – well, was abusive of him, or tried to be. Remus no longer let him get away with anything he wanted. But did that mean that Jim would be overprotective of Angela and any potential children, however unlikely, were in danger of abuse? Either way, Remus could not just sit by and let that happen. He vowed to talk to Angela next chance he got, see if he could make her see sense and leave him.

"What are you planning, Moons?" Sirius asked, grinning. Remus feigned confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"I know that face, Rem. That's your 'I-Have-A-Genius-Plan' face.' So what is it? Can I help?" Remus shook his head, amused.

"I'm just going to talk to her is all." Sirius's face fell.

"Nothing devious? No clever schemes?" Remus chuckled.

"Not this time, Pads." Sirius shrugged and his face brightened again.

"Don't worry, you'll come up with one. Or I will."

"I wasn't worried," Remus fought a smile but surrendered after a moment, a wide grin filling his face. "But I am now."


End file.
